Tuesday, October 28, 2008

It's all uphill.

We live in a great place in the event that Portland is flooded, but it means that in order to get to our house, you need to go uphill. From any direction. There's no way to head out from our house and have a downhill on the way home. The best you can do is head out along the ridge which will keep you at approximately the same elevation...

Why has this become a big deal lately? Because I've been doing my absolute best to minimize my car trips, and those hills sure are a bugger with a 35-lb preschooler trailing along behind my bike! It is fun to see my fitness improve by leaps and bounds, though - there's a huge hill on the ride home from Owen's preschool and the first few times I rode up it with him in back, I had to stop and walk the bike up the last half of the hill. Now I can get up it no problem. It's still a heck of a lot of work, but I don't feel like I'm going to barf when I get to the top anymore! I've gotten so that I really miss taking the bike on the days when I have to drive for whatever reason. Rainy season is going to be tough...

My knitting has lately been an uphill battle as well. I've been working on a few things, but I haven't started working on new designs to release at TNNA in January and if they're going to be ready, I've got to get my tushie in gear. Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you're married to me), I've been too busy playing Little Susie Homemaker. I made another batch of applesauce yesterday AND an apple pie with a made-from-scratch crust. We went up to Hood River on Saturday and visited a bunch of apple farms so there are now about 30 lbs of apples and 20 lbs of pears in our kitchen waiting to be put to good use.

The pie crust was not at all pretty (I need plenty of practice rolling it out so it forms a nice circle that actually fits in the pie pan), but boy did it taste incredible. The recipe used butter and coconut oil - yummy! I remember when I was a kid, coconut oil used to be one of those evil oils, but it's actually quite good for you. We also made French Toast on Sunday and Bill used coconut oil instead of Crisco to grease the pan, and boy was that tasty. I am completely and totally obsessed with whole foods now. My next urge is to figure out how to make pasta! Maybe if Bill is reading this he'll note that I'd love a pasta-making attachment for my mixer for Christmas. Hint, hint! ;)

Tonight I'm having dinner with my friend Leslie and two other Portland participants in Cat Bordhi's Visionary Retreat - Marta McCall and Judy Becker. Unfortunately I'm going to have to drive, but I love getting together with my designer friends so it won't be too difficult to make an exception. Now it's time to get back on the bike and go pick up the kid!

About Me

Welcome to the wild & wooly world of knitwear designer Chrissy Gardiner. I'm a mom of two who spends as much time as possible knitting and designing knitting patterns. I have been published in various books and magazines as well as printing my own pattern line, Gardiner Yarn Works. I published my first book, Toe-Up!, in the summer of 2009. It's about socks, of course!